N.L. announces agreement to develop deepwater Bay du Nord oil project

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador is one step closer to developing its deepest offshore oil site at Bay du Nord, announcing an agreement with Equinor Canada for a project estimated to deliver its first oil by 2025.

Premier Dwight Ball called the project a “new frontier” in the province’s oil and gas industry, with an estimated operating cost of $10.9 billion.

The remote parcel in the Flemish Pass about 500 kilometres east of St. John’s lies in more than 1,100 metres of water.

It was billed as the largest global find in 2013 with an estimated 300 million barrels of recoverable crude.

Equinor Canada, formerly known as Statoil, filed an environmental assessment last month, but the Norwegian-based company has until 2020 to sanction the project.

Ball was joined at the announcement in St. John’s by Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady and Unni Fjaer, vice-president of Equinor’s offshore Newfoundland projects.